As you would know if you followed us on Instagram, we’ve had the mama ducks with their babies in the garden for about 8 weeks now.

for the most part, it’s been really great. However, there has been a catch that we now have to deal with.

You can watch the full Duckdate here:

Overall, I’d say this has been a great experience. Learned a lot. Still love the idea of ducks in the garden.

But, until we can heighten the current beds, they really should only be in the main garden with supervision.

You’ll want your garden beds atleast 3 feet deep if you want to reap the full benefits of ducks in the garden space. They DO keep slugs and bad bugs down. They DO eat weeds. But, they WILL eat your lettuce, beet greens, beans, broccoli, basil, and more given a chance.

We will be setting up the 2nd duck house behind the garden as planned. And we will be finishing the greenhouse/hoop house. My hubby will then be making a series of portable garden beds that are extra tall for inside the greenhouse so the ducks can still mingle in and out of the greenhouse at will without being “tempted beyond what they can bear” with having too easy of access to things.

We’re also working on rehoming the extra drakes we have so we can start moving our baby drakes to the barn. We have several little boys that are fully feathered and need moved out to reduce crowding and allow them to form a Batchelor flock to grow out on pasture until they’re ready for slaughter.

This is part of being a farmer, we try new things, learn from them, and adapt. If we really want something to work, we’ll find a way. Or, if it’s just not working, we reevaluate our plans and adapt to what would work WITH the nature of the animals involved in mind. Don’t try to force nature to conform to your standards. We find much more peace when we work with nature and use the experience to learn more of the balance God has placed in nature.